The Bison War
by zLip
Summary: This is my first story, so don't be too harsh. It is a work in progress, there will be one or two more parts to this story before I move on to the second book. While reading this, please keep in mind that I'm only twleve, so sorry for any grammar errors.


**The Bison War**

I woke up to a low growl. _Here we go again, _I thought as I sat up in my bed. A whimper came from under my bed. I reached my hand under the bed, only to receive a sharp pain in my thumb. I jerked my hand back. "What was that for?" I spat at my pet wolf, Gruff. I had found him abandoned and dehydrated deep in the Aklamoure Mountains while exploring three days ago. I had felt sorry for him and brought him back to my house in the Village of Bison to become my hunting companion, but he seemed more interested in sniffing the flowers than helping me get my next meal. He seems to be a peaceful creature. I hear a second whimper from under the bed. I got up off my bed and put on a deerskin vest and leather pants. I made myself some herbal tea and peeked under the bed. There was Gruff, head rested on his paws, wagging his tail. "It's okay, Gruff, you can come out." He just sat there, wagging his tail. He'd discovered only a few days ago the monsters that come out at night in this world. He'd woke me up in the middle of the night every day since I brought him in, because every time he'd hear the moan of a zombie or the hiss of one of the massive spiders that roamed this land, he would get so scared that he'd crawl under my bed and growl at the noises until I woke up to calm him down. I sighed and got up. I'd have to go to work soon. I was the town blacksmith, and today, a ton of iron, gold, and other ores would be dropped off at my blacksmith shop. I would have a lot of work to do today. I set out some water and a bit of venison for Gruff in case he came out and walked out the door. Conveniently, my blacksmith shop was just next door. Sure enough, as I walked up to the stone building, two large wooden crates were sitting on my doorstep. I hauled them over to my forge and began. Just as I started to place a chunk of iron ore in the furnace, I heard a frantic knock at the door. I set the iron down and walked to the door. As I opened the door, I saw a man I had never seen before. "Hello, sir," I said, "How can I h-" "Tyson!," he shouted at me, "King Barion! He has been assassinated!" He ran off along with what seemed like the whole town, which was knocking on doors, informing people about the king's death. _Who was that guy, and how did he know my name? _I thought. Everybody was running towards the three-story redwood building that is the home of the leader of Bison Village, King Barion.

Bison Village was a very small village. It consisted of a blacksmith, a general store, a tavern, a butcher, a stable, four watch towers in the corners of the village, and about twenty small houses. It had a population of around fifty people, twenty seven men, thirteen women, and ten children. Men were all required to join the Guard at age sixteen due to the low population. Their only protection was a stone wall three feet thick and ten feet high. King Barion ruled with power and dignity, and was loved among the villagers, so when they heard about the King's death, it was chaos. I myself had never known the king personally, but he looked like a kind, gentle being. I was shocked that someone had killed Barion. _Who was it? Why did they do it? Were they from Bison? _A million questions ran through my head as I joined the crowd and bolted down the street at a full sprint. As I came into the building, I saw a sight that will haunt me for the rest of my life. There, in the middle of the floor lay King Barion in a pool of blood, a dagger sunk between his eyes. On his chest was a rolled up sheet of papyrus. I pushed through the crowd of people who formed a circle around the corpse and gently grabbed the letter. I unrolled it and read aloud: "If you have found this letter, my assassin has succeeded in killing your pathetic king. I'm going to make this brief and to the point. You Bison people have two options: surrender to us and be enslaved, or be annihilated by my army. We will be at your village in one week's time to either bring you to our village as slaves or slaughter you all. One week's time. Don't forget. Signed by 'King Akair'." I looked around. "King Akari is the leader of the Village of Zakad. Their army is at the least one hundred men." One of the men in the crowd shouted out "We have no choice. We must surrender." The guy looked to be in his mid-thirties. "No!" I shouted, "I would rather die than be enslaved by those bastards! If you cowards don't want to protect your village, then leave. NOW." About four men walked out of the building. "Now we are down to twenty-three men" I said. "Tomorrow, we will ask the Domascus leader if he will aid us with men. For now, I need miners to get iron for swords for our soldiers, I need farmers to get food for our soldiers, and I need help in the forge. We need to make all kinds of weapons for our soldiers. Woodcutters, fashion bows, herders, we are going to need the leather from a couple of cows for armor. Tamers, we need you to try to get some spiders for us. Riding a spider into war is not something I've ever heard of being done before, but if it works, we will have one hell of an advantage over them. I looked around at my fellow villagers, my friends, my brothers. "We have a chance at winning this. This victory is within reach."

The next five days were spent preparing for the war. The Domascus leader gave to the Bison military twenty-nine men. That meant throughout the whole army, there were forty-two soldiers. We were outnumbered two to one, at the very least. We had a suit of iron-studded leather armor for every soldier from the herders, a stone sword for every soldier from the miners, a bow and twenty arrows for the archers from the crafters, and fourteen soldiers would be colliding with the attackers on spiders, thanks to the tamers. I had been given armor to put on Gruff, as he would be fighting by my side. Some crafters sharpened all of his teeth to points to make it easier to kill. I had been appointed commander of the army and would lead them into war. As commander, I had a suit of iron armor, two iron swords on either side of my belt, and a bow and thirty arrows. We had one more afternoon before the Zakara people came to us. I could not fall asleep that night, thinking of all my people that will die, the possibility that I might be killed, God forbid that Gruff might be killed. It was going to be a big day tomorrow.


End file.
